South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT has approved three consortia to implement the ambitious national program AI for All. By the end of this year, the authorities plan to provide every citizen with unlimited and completely free access to advanced AI services, removing all restrictions on the number of requests.
The operators of this large-scale project will be groups of companies led by giants such as SK Telecom, Kakao, and KT. Official agreements are expected to be signed in September, after which the beta testing phase will begin. The state will provide operators with an impressive fleet of 512 Nvidia B200 accelerators, and from 2027, the budget will cover all operational costs for serving the population. The financial parameters of the entire initiative remain classified for now.
AI agents as digital assistants in everyday life
The AI for All program goes far beyond simple chatbots. The key focus is on deploying AI agents capable of independently interacting with government systems. Such agents will be able to automatically find benefits the user is entitled to, submit applications, and handle routine daily tasks.
SK Telecom plans to integrate the service into apps, browsers, as well as through phone calls and SMS. The agent will be able to independently find contacts of organizations and make calls on behalf of the user, including functions in healthcare and finance. Kakao, in turn, will integrate solutions into its messenger, offering specialized tools for tax reporting and elderly care. KT will connect AI to the Daum portal and partner services such as Musinsa and Zigbang, covering education and real estate.
In the long term, the government aims to move from fragmented chatbots to a unified ecosystem of personal agents. After 2027, the Ministry intends to implement the concept of "one AI agent for every citizen".
Strategic independence from foreign platforms
The key goal of the program is to radically reduce technological dependence on foreign AI platforms. The project's terms strictly regulate the use of models: at least 50% of the computational work of each service must be performed on the operator's own base model, and another 30% on neural networks of other South Korean developers. The use of foreign models is allowed only in cases of extreme necessity, and they will not be eligible for government subsidies. Thus, at least 80% of all service work must rely on domestic solutions.
In my assessment, this is one of the most decisive steps toward creating "sovereign AI" that any government has taken. Limiting the share of foreign models to 20% is not just protectionism, but a clear signal to the market about building a domestic technological ecosystem. The authorities rightly fear that free tiers of foreign platforms could be cut or changed at any moment, making a national alternative critically important.
Statistics confirm the program's relevance: about two-thirds of South Korea's residents already have experience using AI, and around 23 million people use generative services. For comparison, in April, ChatGPT's monthly audience in the country was 23.45 million users, Gemini — 8.45 million, and Claude — 2.41 million. Notably, in late July, Nvidia, Naver, and Brookfield announced an expansion of the capacity of the AI Factory under construction at the GAK Sejong data center from 55 MW to 200 MW by 2028, providing the necessary infrastructure base for this large-scale project.